Myer Alan Barry King-Hamilton QC (9 December 1904 – 23 March 2010) was a Britishbarrister and judge who was best known for hearing numerous high-profile cases at the Old Bailey during the 1960s and 1970s. These included the trial of Janie Jones in 1974 and the 1977 blasphemous libel trial against Gay News and its editor, Denis Lemon, for publishing "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name", a poem by James Kirkup.

In 1935, he married Rosalind Irene Ellis (1906–1991),[5][6] with whom he had two daughters.[1] During his first few years at the Bar, King-Hamilton specialised in road traffic law before branching out into other areas.[4]

Emil Savundra ran a fraudulent insurance company and had been exposed on television by David Frost. His 1968 trial for fraud, under King-Hamilton, led to his conviction and imprisonment for eight years. Despite this, King-Hamilton described Savundra as "What a man. How could one not admire his spirit?" in his memoirs, and would have had him as an imaginary dinner party guest, along with Cleopatra, Dame Edith Evans and others.[7]

King-Hamilton also presided over the 1973 trial of Janie Jones, a pop singer and madame, on charges of procuring women to become prostitutes, blackmail and perverting the course of justice. After the jury convicted her on the first and third charges, King-Hamilton sentenced Jones to seven years imprisonment, describing her as "the most evil woman he had ever met".[4] Jones's own recollection was that he had said "of all the women I've ever tried, you are the most evil. I thought one woman was really evil, but you leave that woman in the shade."[8]

Christian morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse initiated a private prosecution following the refusal of the Director of Public Prosecutions to take action. The trial, under the name Whitehouse v Lemon was heard by King-Hamilton at the Old Bailey on 4 July 1977, with John Mortimer QC and Geoffrey Robertson representing Denis Lemon and John Smyth representing Whitehouse. On Monday 11 July, the jury found both defendants guilty. Gay News Ltd was fined £1,000 and Lemon fined £500 and sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years. King-Hamilton said that "it had been touch and go whether he would send Lemon to jail immediately.[10] He would later say "It was a difficult summing up to prepare but I felt as if I had an influence over my left shoulder, I felt that I was being guided to put it helpfully to the jury... the previous prosecution was back in the early 1920s and did not give me much help."[11]

After retiring in 1979, King-Hamilton acted as an arbitrator in the Channel 4 television series Case on Camera.[4] He died on 23 March 2010 at the age of 105, survived by both his daughters.[4]